Jimmy Kimmel Returns to Late Night Amid L.A. Wildfires, Fiery and Emotional

It has happened before on late-night television. A host in a damaged and hurting city coming on, full of his own personal heartache, trying to address the impact of a disaster.

David Letterman won great credit for his emotional response to the 9/11 attacks that devastated New York City. It was hard not to think of that tragic precedent Monday night when Jimmy Kimmel took to his stage in Los Angeles and spoke for that city’s grief and terror in the face of the almost apocalyptic fires that have consumed so many of the homes, and in some cases, lives of its citizens.

Kimmel, who has not flinched from displaying honest and personal emotion on the air in the past, began his monologue fighting back tears, as he talked about the “very scary and very stressful” past few days in LA, with people driven from their homes, losing all their possessions, now left with no place to live.

These included people from his own life. He said at one point 19 people (and four dogs) were living in his house. And he was not necessarily safe personally, as he and his family, faced with evacuation themselves, had to consider what they might take with them if compelled to flee.

He showed some of the now familiar scenes of frightening flames engulfing whole neighborhoods; but some of the truly striking images were of the flames spreading across the hills just above the Hollywood location of the El Capitan Entertainment Complex, where Kimmel tapes his show.

YouTube player

That Kimmel was even doing a show at all was remarkable, because so much of LA and its show business world had been forced to shut down. That included even the scheduled home game of the LA Rams, which had to be moved to Arizona last night, out of respect for the safety of fans intending to attend the game.

But somehow Kimmel’s audience turned up. And they were as highly emotional as the host they came to see, cheering for all the salutes to the firefighters and other first responders that Kimmel celebrated in his monologue.

He publicized the names and posted the URLs of numerous organizations seeking support and donations to help the thousands of displaced and grieving fellow citizens.

Chief among those being saluted were the firefighters, both local and those from other states, all of which Kimmel mentioned—along with other countries like Canada, and yes, Mexico.

That citation of course could not help but inspire a short aside from Kimmel, who has been among the most aggressive and unstinting critics of the incoming President, whose views on Mexican-Americans and undocumented migrants from that country have been characterized by ugliness Kimmel clearly abhors. (His sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez is of Mexican descent, and Kimmel made sure to call attention to Rodriguez and his own scary experience with the fires.)

“I’m not going to get into all the vile and irresponsible and stupid things our alleged future President and his gaggle of scumbags chose to say during our darkest and most terrifying hours,” Kimmel said.

“The fact that they chose to attack our firefighters who apparently aren’t white enough to be out there risking their lives on our behalf, it’s disgusting. But it’s not surprising.”

There have been plenty of accounts in the news of pusillanimous bowing and scraping to that future President, most prominently by some vastly wealthy people who have seemed cowed by what might happen to them if they didn’t obey in advance. Doesn’t seem like Jimmy Kimmel has much pusillanimity in his make-up.

He did manage to work in some laughs, some with an unbilled guest, the actor Steve Guttenberg, who has turned up in local TV accounts over the past week, working in the streets, trying to help his neighbors, whose houses were damaged or threatened. Seemed that the last time Guttenberg had been on the show was after he got bounced from Dancing with the Stars some fifteen-plus years ago.

And Kimmel’s first in-studio guest, Snoop Dogg, after his own appeals for aid to the people affected, worked in his well-known familiarity with a certain kind of smoke, which in his case has extended to disabling smoke detectors when he and friends light up at home.

YouTube player

Even the music guest, the two Goldsmith brothers from the Los Angeles-based folk-rock band Dawes, who, Kimmel said, had lost their own home to the fires, sang a perfectly appropriate sad song about their city: “Time Spent in Los Angeles.”

They sang in front of a video screen displaying the fires, and the collections of clothes, food, and toys for the now homeless and dispossessed.

YouTube player

The show was out of the ordinary for late-night television—in the sense that it was extraordinary. It was emotional, compelling television, another example of a late-night host stepping up to address a tragedy, of which there have been far too many in this still-young century.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *